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The QC, Vol. 94, No. 20 • March 20, 2008

2008_03_20_001

The Voice of Whittier College Since 1914
Quaker Campus
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Issue 20 - Volume 94
• WWW.QUAKERCAMPUS.ORG
PHOTO BY JOSH WOOD / QC NEWS CO-EDITOR
Students say alarms in Turner (above) have sounded more than the reported four times since Jan. 29.
Excessive false alarms in Turner
Campus safety records do not match student recollections
Josh Wood
QC News Co-Editor
The fire alarm in Turner Hall
has been activated four times
since the end of January, according to Campus Safety records.
The record states that three were
caused by illegal activity and one
was caused by burning food in the
kitchen. However, according to
Turner residents, the alarm has
sounded far more than four times
over the last month and a half.
"Not exaggerating, there have
probably been more than 10,"
sophomore Lizzie Rifaat said.
"It wouldn't be a normal
weekend if the fire alarm didn't
gooff in the middle of the night,"
sophomore Janice Lopez said.
The frequency of the alarm
has caused many students to
disregard it and not evacuate the
building. "When there is a real
fire, no one will take it seriously,"
junior Angie Pietrantoni said.
"Every time my R.A. knocks on
the door and comes in, but my
friend's R.A. has never knocked
or come in, so they don't leave."
Failure to evacuate during a fire
alarm violates the California State
Fire Code.
According to Chief of Campus Safety Bernard Alex, the
fire alarm system in Turner has
not been malfunctioning: "Malfunctioning is the wrong word,"
Alex said. "It meets all the
requirements of the LA County
Fire Department for a residential
facility," Chief of Campus Safety
Bernard Alex said. "It was inspected and signed off on."
However, students have heard
that the system in Turner does,
indeed, have a glitch. "A Campus Safety officer told me that
the problem is mechanical and
that they just don't have enough
money to fix it right now," Pietrantoni said.
Furthermore, there is question of whether the monitoring
system, which pinpoints the
location of the alarm activation,
is accurate. "Their system must
not work because I was woken
up by Campus Safety saying my
detector was going off, and it
wasn't," Pietrantoni said. "I had
been asleep the whole night."
Alex said that Campus Safety
allocates sufficient funds every year to keep the system in
working order. "Every year we
invest a lot of money in making
sure our fire systems are what
they should be," he said. A new
system was installed in Turner
in the summer of 2005 and in
Stauffer in the summer of 2006,
each for around $70,000. New
systems were installed in Ball
and Johnson this past summer.
"That's four dormitories in the
last three years to the tune of
over $200,000."
An annual test is conducted by
see ALARMS, page 5
Trips to Morocco,
Greece and Italy
planned for Jan '09
Yasmin Khorram
QC News Co-Editor
During JanTerm 2009,
Whittier College students will
have the opportunity to live in
homesteads in Morocco and
travel back to Rome with the addition of visiting Greece.
Professorof Religious Studies
Marilyn Gottschall and Adjunct
Professorof Journalism Gary Lib-
man are offering a two-semester,
six-unit course entitled "Looking
for Islam." The duo will be focusing their fall semester lectures on
religious practices in everyday
Muslim life. "When we think
about religion in this country, we
think private belief," Gottschall
said. "But we'll be looking at how
culture and religion connect."
Following a semester of tying
together anthropology, religion,
sociology and history, students
will travel to the city of Fez,
Morocco, for three and a half
weeks where they will live with
host families. Most of the families
will probably have no knowl
edge of the English language,
predominately speaking Arabic
and maybe French.
Students will take a two-
hour course in Arabic Monday
through Friday mornings while
afternoons will be spent in lectures with local experts on field
trips or for individual research.
Two weekend trips will be spent
exploring neighboring sites such
as Meknes, an imperial city, Volu-
bilis, a Roman ruin and Moulay
Idriss, a Moroccan pilgrimage
site.
Since this will be the first
time the college will be traveling to Morocco, 15-18 students
will be accepted. A few more
students can register for the Fall
course and will subsequently
earn a space on a waiting list
for the JanTerm trip. Gottschall
estimates the cost will be $2,000,
not including airfare. "With the
dollar falling, it's hard to know
exactly, but it should turn out to be
a reasonable price," she said.
Normally offered every two
years, the trip to Rome will hap-
see JANTERM, page 4
PHOTO BY REBECCA DEITCH / PHOTO EDITOR
Candlelight vigil for slain student
BGLAD hosted about 25 students in the Amphitheater on Wednesday, March 19 to remember
Lawrence King, a 15-year-old student from Oxnard who was shot in the head by a classmate
on February 12,2008. The murder has been deemed a hate crime because King was openly gay
and the shooter had premeditated the attack on those grounds. As Whittier students passed
around a candle, they read stories of other victims of hate crimes across the country.
BENEFIT CONCERT
To Write Love on Her Arms
A&E, Page 11
ULTIMATE FRISBEE
Are you catching on?
Sports, Page 14

The Voice of Whittier College Since 1914
Quaker Campus
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Issue 20 - Volume 94
• WWW.QUAKERCAMPUS.ORG
PHOTO BY JOSH WOOD / QC NEWS CO-EDITOR
Students say alarms in Turner (above) have sounded more than the reported four times since Jan. 29.
Excessive false alarms in Turner
Campus safety records do not match student recollections
Josh Wood
QC News Co-Editor
The fire alarm in Turner Hall
has been activated four times
since the end of January, according to Campus Safety records.
The record states that three were
caused by illegal activity and one
was caused by burning food in the
kitchen. However, according to
Turner residents, the alarm has
sounded far more than four times
over the last month and a half.
"Not exaggerating, there have
probably been more than 10,"
sophomore Lizzie Rifaat said.
"It wouldn't be a normal
weekend if the fire alarm didn't
gooff in the middle of the night,"
sophomore Janice Lopez said.
The frequency of the alarm
has caused many students to
disregard it and not evacuate the
building. "When there is a real
fire, no one will take it seriously,"
junior Angie Pietrantoni said.
"Every time my R.A. knocks on
the door and comes in, but my
friend's R.A. has never knocked
or come in, so they don't leave."
Failure to evacuate during a fire
alarm violates the California State
Fire Code.
According to Chief of Campus Safety Bernard Alex, the
fire alarm system in Turner has
not been malfunctioning: "Malfunctioning is the wrong word,"
Alex said. "It meets all the
requirements of the LA County
Fire Department for a residential
facility," Chief of Campus Safety
Bernard Alex said. "It was inspected and signed off on."
However, students have heard
that the system in Turner does,
indeed, have a glitch. "A Campus Safety officer told me that
the problem is mechanical and
that they just don't have enough
money to fix it right now," Pietrantoni said.
Furthermore, there is question of whether the monitoring
system, which pinpoints the
location of the alarm activation,
is accurate. "Their system must
not work because I was woken
up by Campus Safety saying my
detector was going off, and it
wasn't," Pietrantoni said. "I had
been asleep the whole night."
Alex said that Campus Safety
allocates sufficient funds every year to keep the system in
working order. "Every year we
invest a lot of money in making
sure our fire systems are what
they should be," he said. A new
system was installed in Turner
in the summer of 2005 and in
Stauffer in the summer of 2006,
each for around $70,000. New
systems were installed in Ball
and Johnson this past summer.
"That's four dormitories in the
last three years to the tune of
over $200,000."
An annual test is conducted by
see ALARMS, page 5
Trips to Morocco,
Greece and Italy
planned for Jan '09
Yasmin Khorram
QC News Co-Editor
During JanTerm 2009,
Whittier College students will
have the opportunity to live in
homesteads in Morocco and
travel back to Rome with the addition of visiting Greece.
Professorof Religious Studies
Marilyn Gottschall and Adjunct
Professorof Journalism Gary Lib-
man are offering a two-semester,
six-unit course entitled "Looking
for Islam." The duo will be focusing their fall semester lectures on
religious practices in everyday
Muslim life. "When we think
about religion in this country, we
think private belief," Gottschall
said. "But we'll be looking at how
culture and religion connect."
Following a semester of tying
together anthropology, religion,
sociology and history, students
will travel to the city of Fez,
Morocco, for three and a half
weeks where they will live with
host families. Most of the families
will probably have no knowl
edge of the English language,
predominately speaking Arabic
and maybe French.
Students will take a two-
hour course in Arabic Monday
through Friday mornings while
afternoons will be spent in lectures with local experts on field
trips or for individual research.
Two weekend trips will be spent
exploring neighboring sites such
as Meknes, an imperial city, Volu-
bilis, a Roman ruin and Moulay
Idriss, a Moroccan pilgrimage
site.
Since this will be the first
time the college will be traveling to Morocco, 15-18 students
will be accepted. A few more
students can register for the Fall
course and will subsequently
earn a space on a waiting list
for the JanTerm trip. Gottschall
estimates the cost will be $2,000,
not including airfare. "With the
dollar falling, it's hard to know
exactly, but it should turn out to be
a reasonable price," she said.
Normally offered every two
years, the trip to Rome will hap-
see JANTERM, page 4
PHOTO BY REBECCA DEITCH / PHOTO EDITOR
Candlelight vigil for slain student
BGLAD hosted about 25 students in the Amphitheater on Wednesday, March 19 to remember
Lawrence King, a 15-year-old student from Oxnard who was shot in the head by a classmate
on February 12,2008. The murder has been deemed a hate crime because King was openly gay
and the shooter had premeditated the attack on those grounds. As Whittier students passed
around a candle, they read stories of other victims of hate crimes across the country.
BENEFIT CONCERT
To Write Love on Her Arms
A&E, Page 11
ULTIMATE FRISBEE
Are you catching on?
Sports, Page 14